Happy Lunar New Year!

Seems like it was just yes­ter­day we were indulged in the red season.

The coconut tree.
The coconut tree.

Just when you thought the fear of an immi­nent reces­sion is plagu­ing the region, the Chi­nese New Year Eve count­down in Kuch­ing makes you believe otherwise.

For about an hour before and after the clock struck mid­night, the wealth­i­est in the city paraded their mon­e­tary sta­tus in the most exhaus­tive fire­works dis­play of the year. Here in Kuch­ing, Men show off the size of their balls wal­lets by how long your fire­works dis­play is. And gen­er­ally, if you oppo­site neigh­bour has an end­less sup­ply of these aes­thet­i­cally beau­ti­ful explo­sives, you’ll know he’s doing really well.

The coconut tree.
The Kuch­ing Neigh­bours’ Fire­works Competition

The not-so-wealthy ones well, arm them­selves with a tri­pod and cam­era trained at the sky snap­ping away non-stop. =)

Ear­lier on CNY eve we had a sim­ple steam­boat reunion din­ner among the family.

The Ingredients.
The selec­tion.

Noth­ing beats an awe­some steam­boat din­ner pre­pared by my Mom and Sis.

ad salivating at a fresh batch of steamboat.
Dad sali­vat­ing at a fresh batch of steamboat.

The first day of CNY year saw an open house for my Dad’s col­leagues. Towards the end of the allo­cated time for the open house, our long fam­ily friend, Ms. Tee came over with her chil­dren — long child­hood friends of ours. One thing you expe­ri­ence about grow­ing up is that child­hood friends drift apart. I’m not sure why, it just hap­pens. When before this we’d go over to play every week­end, we now only meet on CNY visitings.

Later, we fol­lowed Ms. Tee and chil­dren to Mr. Foo’s place. Another old fam­ily friend of ours who’s mov­ing back to West Malaysia soon. It was a brief reunion of old fam­ily friends. It sud­denly dawned upon me how every­one had grown up, moved on to col­lege, etc. No longer were we play­ing board games or cops and rob­bers while the adults chat in the liv­ing room.

Now we find our­selves part of the adults’ discussions.

Well, that’s what that makes CNY a time like no other.

Happy Chi­nese New Year, folks and have an ox-picious new year ahead!

13 thoughts on “Happy Lunar New Year!”

  2. cdason

    One thing I adore about the Chi­nese cul­ture is the reunion din­ner. It’s com­pul­sory and it means so much that every­one will try to make it home.

    Any­way, I still remain amazed over your shots using the DSLR, and despite you your­self being new to it. The steam­boat photo is fan­tas­tic.. and the fire­works!! WOW..

    Here’s to wish­ing you a happy and pros­per­ous NIU year!!

    1. ember Post author

      It’s a healthy prac­tice, really. Espe­cially now with chil­dren leav­ing their par­ents to migrate to another city or coun­try, Chi­nese New Year becomes a great oppor­tu­nity for fam­i­lies to reunite and strengthen ties. =D

      Glad you liked the pho­tos! Well it’s been almost a month since I got my dSLR, so it isn’t exactly new any­more, haha. The Project 365 I’m work­ing on helps with my skills too I might add!

      Thanks for the wishes!

  5. teddY

    I absolutely love the ‘The Selec­tion’ photo *screams in joy* because it just look so per­fect! Love the sat­u­ra­tion and con­trast, and in addi­tion, it reminds me so much of this favourite photo on Flickr. Very lovely indeed!

    It’s inter­est­ing how peo­ple show off their wealth through fire­works. What a great way to burn money (lit­er­ally) eh? And peo­ple like us get the last laugh — not only that we get to enjoy a mar­vel­lous dis­play of light and smoke (and some get awe­some pho­tos like you), we don’t even have to pay a penny for that (unless they have the guts to paint our win­dows black and demand a fee to let us out and watch the fireworks).

    And the longer the time since you released your theme, the more I’m lov­ing it. It’s just… lovely. The earthy tones and all 🙂

    1. ember Post author

      That is my favourite photo too! =D That photo you linked on Flickr is pretty inter­est­ing too. I have this thing for real-life par­o­dies of web-based inter­faces. =D

      Indeed, Teddy! I’ve been their loyal spec­ta­tor for years and am still more than happy to go on that way, hah!

      Glad you’re lik­ing it, hehe. Makes all the effort worth­while, really. I’m sure you can relate to that.

  6. Pingback: How local people celebrate Chinese New Year

    1. ember Post author

      Actu­ally there are far more bet­ter designed local sites out there — you haven’t stum­bled upon them only.

      My pre­vi­ous design was fea­tured in Smash­ing Mag­a­zine last year, yes. It was one of my wildest dreams I’d never thought will be pos­si­ble but yeah, it hap­pened. Thanks for all the effort to notify me though! I appre­ci­ate it, really. =)

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